


Joel and Chad Go to IHOP

by mmanalysis



Category: Power Rangers, Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Genre: Bromance, Gen, Male Friendship, Pancakes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-05
Updated: 2013-07-26
Packaged: 2017-12-17 18:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmanalysis/pseuds/mmanalysis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Joel is hankering for some pancakes and Chad somehow gets dragged along for the ride.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Plan is Set

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own and/or claim these characters as my own. Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue belong to the Saban Company. IHOP belongs to itself and I do not work for the company.

"No."

"But Chad..."

"Joel, it's 10 p.m. and we have to be up by 7, the one with the a.m. We do not need to be making this late of a trip just for some pancakes." Chad said as he was attempting to get ready for bed, keyword being attempt since Joel kept interrupting him with notions of IHOP.

"Pfft, pancakes at night are the best though! My flight school buddies and I would do it all the time to de-stress and let me tell you, we need to de-stress after what's been going on."

Chad has to admit that Joel had a good point. What with Dana and Captain Mitchell finding out that Ryan was alive, him trying to kill them, and the whole family drama, Chad was a bit tired himself. But pancakes in the night? 

"Come on!" Joel whined as he got on the floor in a begging position. "It's only 20 minutes down the road and we'll be back before 12. We can at least get 7ish hours of sleep. Please?"

Chad just sighed at the overall patheticness. "Why not take Kelsey? She would be into this sort of things"

"Man, Kelsey's hanging with her astronaut lady friend and before you say it, Ryan and Dana are doing brother-sister bonding and Carter would just give me a lecture about carbs. Besides, I've been meaning to hang out with you more."

"Really?" "Really."

Chad never thought that Joel wanted to hang out with him. Granted, he didn't think Joel hated him but he always assumed Joel was more interested in trying to flirt with Ms. Fairweather than wanting to be friends with him. And right then, he decided to take that chance.

"Ok, let's do it." 

Joel stood up, eyes wide in astonishment. "Seriously?!" "Seriously."

Joel pumped his fist in the air and grabbed his cowboy hat from the dresser. "You won't regret this!" And headed out the door.

Chad looked upwards sending a silent prayer that things would be okay.

Of course, as a ranger, nothing ever comes without complications.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First problem of the night arises for our duo.

“Just you wait! I heard they have limited edition cinnamon roll pancakes and they also got….”

“Why not get a cinnamon roll then?” Chad said, interrupting Joel’s spiel about IHOP. Joel rolled his eyes. “Because it’s not a pancake, duh!” Joel replied and he felt very proud of his answer. 

When he saw the exit for 234, his excitement went up a little. He hadn’t had IHOP in a while and with battling evil forces and such, he hadn’t had the time. But tonight was perfect and he actually had a pancake buddy with him. Granted, he rather have had Ms. Fairweather accompanying him and be impressed with his pancake consumption skills but Chad was cool too. 

As he moved from the highway into the feeder road, anticipation creeping further as he took Pecan Ave. turned right and saw the blue sign with the white letters spelling I-H-O-P.

At least, that’s what he was expecting to see. 

“Um, I’m not an expert on restaurants but I’m pretty sure IHOP doesn’t have a white castle image on its side.” Chad said, looking at Joel.

Joel was silent for a moment before bursting out with a loud “WHAT?”

“What happened to IHOP? It was here like yesterday. Well maybe like 3 months ago but that’s pretty much like yesterday and now there’s a white castle and seriously who wants a white castle, their burgers aren’t that great…”

“Joel! Let’s go ask those two guys over there.” Chad said, pointing to the two guys sitting on the outside bench. The two got out of their car, Chad rushing to reach the two first before Joel went nuts on them. “Excuse me guys, but do you know what happened to the IHOP right here?”

One guy stopped mid-chew and looked to be thinking. “Like the place with the pancakes?”

“Yeah, the place with the pancakes.” Joel said with increasing irritation and seriously, is there some epidemic of people not knowing a thing about IHOP?! Also, was this guy high?

His buddy across from him seemed to have a better clue of what was going on even though he looked a bit out of it. “Oh, it got demolished two months ago for a White Castle. Best thing to happen to me and Kumar since it’s not that far away from our apartment.”

“….Demolished?”

“Yeah.” replied Kumar as he whipped his mouth. “Harold and I remember driving by around that time and saw a sign said ‘Coming Soon: White Castle’ and you know, that’s what’s it all about.”

Joel was about to cry. His late night run. Ruined! By a sub-par burger place. The Harold guy seemed to notice his plight and spoke up again.

“Hey, if you want there’s an IHOP 30 minutes away from here off of 48th and Lincoln. I remember going there with the Asian-American group back in college.” 

“Wow, you guys sure were living it up, huh?” Kumar said sarcastically. Harold looked annoyed and argued about the merits and that Kumar should have been a part of it with Kumar arguing back that he didn’t want to hang around FOBs. Joel knew it was time to bounce.

As he and Chad sat back in the car, Chad spoke up. “Look, we can go another time. It’s getting late and…”

“Chad. Did you not promise me a late night run?” 

“I wouldn’t call it a promise…”

“And is it 12 yet?”

“Well no, but…”

“Chad whatever your middle name is Lee! We are doing this late night run. We will get pancakes. And we will be back in time to get some sleep. What do you say, partner?” Joel held out his hand for Chad to shake. He saw Chad stare at it for a while and for a minute Joel was worried his passionate speech wouldn’t cut through.

“Okay. But I want at least 6 hours of sleep.”

Joel felt the excitement again. Forget that old IHOP. They were going on an adventure now!

“Done and done!” Joel replied and put the car in drive heading towards 48th and Lincoln.

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place after episode 12, "Truth Discovered" in which Ryan pretty much stops working for Diabolico.
> 
> I feel like one of the things that Lightspeed Rescue slept on was doing more with Joel and Chad's friendship. I think they play off each other well with Joel being the flirtatious, doesn't think all the way through guy and Chad being his ever suffering friend who secretly likes it.
> 
> As for why IHOP? Well, it's opened 24 hours and my friends and I did some late night eating there.
> 
> And this will be a multi-chaptered fic because it's easier to do it on my schedule.


End file.
